Land deal: Salim Raj moves HC

KOCHI: Salim Raj, the suspended gunman of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, on Tuesday approached the High Court challenging the single judge’s order directing the State Police Chief to take steps to seize the telephonic records of persons allegedly involved in land deal cases. In his plea, Salim Raj stated that there was no criminal case registered in connection with the land deal case, hence the order was not sustainable.

The state government submitted that the documents submitted before the court by persons claiming to be the owners of land in dispute were illegible. It made the submission following a criticism by the court against the state for not producing legible documents with the appeal.

The government stated that the writ petitioners before the single judge had not served copies, hence the appellants were not in a position to translate any copies. The state sought permission to dispense with production of translated copies of two documents. The government pleader submitted that the government will not rely upon the documents submitted before the court by the writ petitioners.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice K Vinod Chandran recorded the statement and asked the state to file a memo before the court and directed the Registry to number the appeal filed by the state.

COIMBATORE: Coimbatore market may have cooled down from the buoyant days of 2009 to 2011 but has not lost steam. Property price have been stable last year, unlike the rise of 20 to 40 per cent seen in the past. Data from National Housing Board’s Residex Index shows that the city’s index has risen from its base value of January 2007 to 184 in January-March 2013. This has been quite moderate compared to a rise to 310 for Chennai during the same period.

KOZHIKODE: In a bid to prevent frequent collapse of buildings under construction, the district administration has decided to strictly enforce standardization in the size of laterite bricks and ensure quality of building materials. Building collapses have already claimed 31 houses in the district so far this year.

COIMBATORE: Affordable housing is not low-cost housing and Puravankara Projects Ltd (PPL) sees great potential in this segment as it is not limited to tier-II cities but can be extended to metros as well, according to Jackbastian K. Nazareth, Group CEO, PPL, Bangalore.

COIMBATORE: Affordable housing is not low-cost housing and Puravankara Projects Ltd (PPL) sees great potential in this segment as it is not limited to tier-II cities but can be extended to metros as well, according to Jackbastian K. Nazareth, Group CEO, PPL, Bangalore.